ST. PAUL – The moment Mike Babcock learned the San Jose Sharks had acquired defenseman Brent Burns, he instantly got the look of a guy who’s team just let one get away.

His Red Wings are looking for a defenseman to replace the retired Brian Rafalski, but it was the playoff rival Sharks who pried the talented Burns away from the Minnesota Wild in a blockbuster trade.

“They just hit a home run,” Babcock said of the Sharks. “That’s a gold medal pick. I’m pissed off.”

Babcock figures his team’s chances of getting by the Sharks in the Western Conference playoffs just got that much more difficult and that’s exactly what the Sharks want to hear. They also know their window for challenging for a Stanley Cup is almost as gaping as the hole in their playoff resume.

"Why do people say 'grow some balls'? Balls are weak and sensitive.

If you wanna be tough, grow a p***y. Those things can take a pounding"

-- Betty White

"Finger-pointing is easy. In some cases, even therapeutic. Fans need to blame something,

because the outcome is so frustratingly out of their control."
-- Mitch Albom

imf****** pissed too. i was pushing as hard as anyone to land this guy. shows that a trade was possible, and people (babs) felt like we should have picked him up. f*** holland. carter, richards, and now burns? god i don't see this offseason going well anymore.

imf****** pissed too. i was pushing as hard as anyone to land this guy. shows that a trade was possible, and people (babs) felt like we should have picked him up. f*** holland. carter, richards, and now burns? god i don't see this offseason going well anymore.

Yeah sure. f*** Holland.. for not blowing up the team and trading away our best prospect for one defenseman with only one year left on the contract..because there are no defensemen on the market anymore. f*** him indeed.

imf****** pissed too. i was pushing as hard as anyone to land this guy. shows that a trade was possible, and people (babs) felt like we should have picked him up. f*** holland. carter, richards, and now burns? god i don't see this offseason going well anymore.

You need to take some pills and calm down.

Burns wasn't even the best one available on the market. Add in that the big signings will probably be trades, and not free agent signings, and I fail to see this horrible slight against you Holland initiated.

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With the loss of Rafalski the Wings are without question worse. We need to add a top 3 defensemen and and a top 6 forward without question to remain competitive with SJ. We are undersized at forward as it was and now with Burns in SJ we REALLY need some size up front.

I have this sick feeling that we will not spend to the Cap and Ilitch is tight on money for the Wings. I hope I'm very very wrong.

I have this sick feeling that we will not spend to the Cap and Ilitch is tight on money for the Wings. I hope I'm very very wrong.

There's no way the Wings don't spend. Illitch is absolutely loaded and loves spending money on Championships.

The article also goes on to say this:

There is no denying Burns’ skill level, but the fact the Sharks dealt a 20-30 goal man, a decent prospect and a first round pick in exchange for a player who has had concussion problems and is due to become an unrestricted free agent after next season indicates the Sharks realize not winning the conference final is becoming more and more unacceptable for a franchise that has done so much in the regular season.

Just because we haven't landed a name yet doesn't mean anything. Free agency has even started yet and people are acting like it's August. I don't know why anyone's bringing up Carter and Richards like we would've pursued them, anyway. You can't blame Ken for 'missing out' on 2 guys we never had our sights on.

There's no way the Wings don't spend. Illitch is absolutely loaded and loves spending money on Championships.

The article also goes on to say this:

Just because we haven't landed a name yet doesn't mean anything. Free agency has even started yet and people are acting like it's August. I don't know why anyone's bringing up Carter and Richards like we would've pursued them, anyway. You can't blame Ken for 'missing out' on 2 guys we never had our sights on.

I totally agree that we weren't interested in either of those 2 but having them land where they did is not good. I guess my biggest issue at this point is that I'm not high on this FA class. I personally think Burns is better than any UFA D man available. We have Lidstrom for 1 more year and need/should make a huge push for the Cup this next season. I don't see any UFA/s with the exception of Richards that would push us to that point.

how does wisniewski even replace rafalski? we are worse than last year ATM. and ya, id trade a prospect that might not make an impact in the nhl for a franchise dman. so ya, im pretty pissed. all our rivals are getting better and we are getting worse. why do you think babs would say he was pissed? cause he thought we coulda had him. we had a higher first round pick, then add a top six (fil or franzen) and a upper prospect. id do that. thats not blowing up our team. it certainly didn't blow up sj's team.

imf****** pissed too. i was pushing as hard as anyone to land this guy. shows that a trade was possible, and people (babs) felt like we should have picked him up. f*** holland. carter, richards, and now burns? god i don't see this offseason going well anymore.

I'm over getting upset about things I have no control over. Either Holland will get his s*** together this off-season or at some point in the future, or he won't. If he doesn't, we'll either ease comfortably into a decade or so of middle of the pack mediocracy, or we'll bottom out and pile up some nice lottery picks. Either way, I'm done skipping my Friday night plans to stay glued to my TV to watch the draft, or endlessly pressing the LGW refresh button on July 1st and on deadline day and whatnot. It's too sunny outside for this s***.

How would we have gotten Burns anyway? Sharks paid a fairly steep price, it may pay off if they can win a championship in the next year or two but Wings couldn't have matched that offer.

Many are saying we should've thrown Franzen their way, but I don't think Franzen is equivalent to Setoguchi in terms of trade value. Setoguchi is younger, nearing his prime, still improving, and carrying a less burdensome contract in terms of years.

I think Smith would've had to have been involved to get Burns, and I think Holland is wise to not trade Smith given our lack of good, young D prospects.

Yeah, no s***. I spent six hours last night mod-ing a draft stream chatbox. I predicted before the draft started that we'd trade our pick for more picks.Yet, I still sat there and watched. Behold. Picks we wanted... gone. Trade imminent and complete

...and it was beautiful out last night. Could have been out drinking and socializing.

Screw the second round.

QUOTE

(AtomicPunk @ February 4, 2010 - 12:16AM)

Imma let you finish, and your cap numbers are all good and all that, but imma let Kenny figure it out. Kenny's cap numbers were the best cap numbers this year.

The thing is, this team is going to be essentially "blown up" by players retiring in the next couple years. Losing Rafalski now and Lidstrom soon is a HUGE change, and as much as people want to believe drop-in replacements will come along and the Wings can continue on in exactly the same way, I don't think that's realistic.

I really think they need to be looking to the future with an eye toward building a more balanced team, but that's a subject for 10 other threads. I'm not going to lose my sanity over not acquiring Burns/Richards/Carter/whoever, but at the same time I don't agree with the almost hostile response of some posters on here to the mere suggestion that Holland could have made a trade of anyone except the one or two current whipping boys that are arbitrarily considered tradeable while no other players should be.

imf****** pissed too. i was pushing as hard as anyone to land this guy. shows that a trade was possible, and people (babs) felt like we should have picked him up. f*** holland. carter, richards, and now burns? god i don't see this offseason going well anymore.

I agree. f*** Holland. Go Winnipeg! This team sucks now.

Anyhow, one xanax and a happy summer away from hockey news later, once allowing time for this team to form, I imagine Holland picks up a D-man that Babs would like. Hopefully.

It's still early to hit the panic button,but some people are acting like we are talking about giving prospects for veteran player (Lang/Schneider) and not about 26 old big guy who managed to have 50 points even playing for s***ty Minny

This is what happens when your spoiled for so many years, when people don't get there way they freak out and go all bi-polar and claim its the end of the world. Burns didn't get signed by the Wings, big deal, what if Smith turns out to be better than Burns and we end up trading him to Minny ? Obviously the asking price was too high, I would trust Holland over majority of 'fans' that are pissed because they didn't get there way.